How The Mighty Have Fallen...

by Matt Brannen

This has not been a good year to be a fan of Notre Dame's college football team. In fact, the last couple of seasons won't be remembered as the "good old days" for Golden Dome backers. The school made a big decision several years back to shell up major bucks for a big name coach and now finds itself at another cross-roads with their program. In the end, it might result in the institution having to suck up a huge contract buyout and moving onto the next coaching option. One thing is for sure, the grains in the proverbial hourglass are running out for Charlie Weis.

It should be noted that things started out very promising at Notre Dame for Weis, much as it did for his predecessors Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie. Weis began his Notre Dame head coaching tenure with a strong 19-6 record and two significant bowl appearances. A Super Bowl winning assistant coach that was given a lot of credit for the development of Tom Brady into a top 5 NFL quarterback, Weis was considered by many to be the Bill Parcells, one of his mentors, of the 21st Century. Many believed Weis, a Notre Dame alum, was the school's coach for the foreseeable future and multiple National Championship appearances would be in the offing. After Weis' second very successful season at the helm, Notre Dame gave him a sizeable contract extension and raise, fearing that he might bolt for an NFL sideline. For all intents and purposes, that's when things started to fall apart for the Fighting Irish.

Since the extension, Notre Dame has been 16-19 under Weis' watch and have only 1 bowl game appearance (last year in the well removed from New Year's Eve or Day Hawaii Bowl). This is with college football recruiting pundits stating that Notre Dame had top 10 to 15 recruiting classes the last several off-seasons. Perhaps the final indignity with Weis as head coach came this weekend, when the Fighting Irish lost to UCONN at home in double overtime. The Huskies, a still developing program that hadn't won a game since their defensive back Jasper Howard was tragically murdered earlier in the season, steamrolled the Irish and fought back from a 14-0 first half deficit to win on Notre Dame's "Senior Day" (making it the second consecutive year that the Irish lost to a team with a losing record at its last home game of the season). After the contest, Weis refused to comment on his future, choosing to only discuss the game and his players.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recap?gid=200911210104&prov=ap

However, earlier in the week, Fighting Irish Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick indicated that the decision about Weis' future would come sooner rather than later after the season concluded. Even though this is what Swarbrick said after last season and Weis was retained, the timing of Swarbrick's statement is critical. This announcement came before "Senior Day" and that can't be a good sign for Weis. Some reports have his contractual buyout, should he be let go, at or above $10 million. Many observers believed, until the end of this year, that the Irish would continue to give Weis time to build up his program, if for no other reason because they would rather pay him to coach than pay him not to coach. However, it now seems like things have hit critical mass for Notre Dame and rumors are swirling that they are willing to part ways with the buyout money to close the Charlie Weis chapter in Irish football history.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091120/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_notre_dame_weis
It is intriguing to consider how many big-time coaches have stumbled this year and recognize that Weis is not alone in his travails. Michigan's Rich Rodriguez may well be sitting on the second hottest college football coaching seat in the country at the moment and may be "next year's Charlie Weis," if the Wolverines can't get things righted. Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, beset by injuries to just about everyone in Sooner Nation, has even had his name thrown around a little bit as a possible successor to Weis at Notre Dame. While that seems unlikely to happen for a number of reasons, it is telling that Stoops is getting mentions for other college coaching jobs (when most of all previous rumors had him potentially going to the NFL). As for a possible replacement for Weis, should he be let go, the rumor mill has been grinding out the names of several hot coaches at lesser known programs. Whether or not Notre Dame decides to go that route or try to bring in another big name, it seems more and more likely that the Fighting Irish will not be led into battle next year by Charlie Weis.